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The Cruel Sea’s 30 year anniversary tour of The Honeymoon Is Over album.

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Venue:

Palais, St Kilda Melbourne

Date: 02/12/2023

The Cruel Sea’s swampy grooved third album The Honeymoon Is Over was their most successful. After touring with his other 90’s band the Beast Of Bourbon earlier this year, Tex and the Cruel Sea are doing a 30 year anniversary tour, sans James Cruikshank who died of bowel cancer in 2015. Tex has lost a lot of weight and is much more mobile than in his other shows over the last few years. Opening was all girl band The Wraylettes were fun but would have been nice if the lead gtr had better chops if you’re gonna do Link Wray stuff. You can usually see them for free at inner citty pubs so this was a step up. TCS band were great with things lifting with Delivery Man and the audience rising with Black Stick. A mate reckoned Cruikshank was missed ( Matt Walker did his parts) but I didn’t notice. We were 3 rows from the front and while great for getting the stage energy you lose the whole band feel and the sound is too separate. 10-15 rows back is my sweet spot. Annoyingly Dan Rumour’s guitar amp wasn’t working » Continue Reading.

Musically hip politicians

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Aussie Pm Albanese is a music fan and did a bit of amateur DJing in his time. Here he is at the PMs desk rocking a Radio Birdman t- shirt. RB was a seminal Sydney punk band. Clinton played sax, Blair bass and Obama loved publicising his playlists. Gilberto Gil was a Govt minister.Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil was one. Youssou Ndour is one.if I go back Athol Guy of the Seekers was a State ( regional ) minister. Any others?

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Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music has been remastered by Bob Ludwig

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They’re taking the piss. There was that German ( of course) band or collective who learned to play and, I think, performed it live. Now we have a remastered version. I am surprised there are no outakes and alternatve versions.

The attached article suggests that those deriding it have never heard it. I have a couple of times. It was absolutely awful. And Lou saying you had to listen on headphones was another piss take.

Lou needed to meet a contractual obligation. He put his guitar in a room , I dunno, maybe strummed it then shut the door and let his gadgetry , phase , strobe, loop whatever til he turned it off. Sliced it up et voila 4 sides !

Remastered FFS. I would love to know what Ludwig did. @Tiggerlion any chance of a review comparing tte original and the remastered version?

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/mmm1

Brian Jonestown Massacre – was this the worst gig ever?

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I was thinking about going and , perversely now wish I had. Very Tap.

From the Melbourne Age

Fistfights, boos and faffing around: Was this the worst gig ever? Karl Quinn By Karl Quinn

Brian Jonestown Massacre The Forum, Melbourne, Tuesday, November 21 ★★

Those who stayed to the bitter end of the shambolic, abusive and ultimately violent show from American psychedelic rock act Brian Jonestown Massacre in Melbourne on Tuesday night got to witness something few attendees at the mighty Forum ever see: the coming down of the safety curtain.

But by then, it was far too late. Everything that could go wrong had gone wrong in a show that had fistfights, f— yous to the band and the audience, and an enormous amount of faffing about between songs. And, just occasionally, it had some great music too. Anton Newcombe, the frontman of American psychedelic rock act Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Anton Newcombe, the frontman of American psychedelic rock act Brian Jonestown Massacre.Credit: Principal Entertainment/Facebook

Frontman Anton Newcombe’s battles with drug and alcohol abuse over the years have been well documented. In Sydney last week he shouted at the audience, ordered one of the guitarists to leave the stage, » Continue Reading.

Dylan: The Complete Budokan reviewed… in English!

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What does it sound like?:

It was the first time

March 20 1978 was the first time I saw Bob Dylan. I had just turned 21. As you can imagine the anticipation was palpable. He played 3 nights at Melbourne’s mainly outdoor venue the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. I saw the first night which rained heavily and the second night. I am in a chat group of Dylan fanatics and none of us recall being aware of the format these shows would take and the dramatic reworkings of songs. Dylan had played 16 shows before us including Auckland, Brisbane and Adelaide but, at most, the awareness was of a much bigger band.

To stand there listening to him play one of his lyrically most potent songs Hard rain as an instrumental, in a white jump suit, was extremely disorienting. The last thing I had heard or seen was the punky bandanas and face paint of the 76 Rolling Thunder tour. I tried to like it, I wanted to like it but really, I was underwhelmed. And in early 78, jump suits and flutes were a hard sell.

Budokan, the original album was intended for the Japan market only » Continue Reading.

The Rough and Rowdy Ways tour – a thoughtful review (not by me)

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One line in this particularly caught my eye ; “No disrespect to certain megastars, but Bob Dylan invented “Eras.” If it were a friendship bracelet, his career would be a string of pearls, one semi-precious bead for each of his shapeshifting versions.”

Not saying there aren’t, but I can’t think of another artist,whose career is so distinctly marked by different clearly defined stages.

https://www.westsiderag.com/2023/11/19/bob-dylans-rough-and-rowdy-times-in-new-york-town

Captain Beefheart : Concheroo reminisces with a cameo from Saucecraft

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I have an anecdote. A sth African mate , long time resident of London Nick Carnac had somehow arranged to meet Berfheart after a gig but something git in the way. An hour and half later he thought , he won’t be there but I better check. Goes to the bar – “ I been here for ages, what happened”. At least he kept appointments even if he ripped off his band members.

https://andnowitsallthis.blogspot.com/2023/11/great-concerts-revisited-captain.html

Cat Power Sings Dylan – Royal Albert Hall 66

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What does it sound like?:

Ok so confirmed Dylan addict Junior Wells sits down to listen to confirmed Dylan addict Cat Power (Chan Marshall) recreating one of the Holy Grails in the Dylan catalogue Live 66 Royal Albert Hall, which we all know was the Manchester Free Trade Hall show. This will be interesting.

I have stated previously that my problem with so many covers of Dylan songs is they overdo the melody – Make You Feel My Love being a great example. His songs always have strong melodies and I find his voice, the harp they provide some sour to the sweet. Will she sugar it up? Will it be a carbon copy prompting the question, why bother?

I have only seen Cat once, supporting Nick Cave in Sydney. I think it was the same tour where she stopped off and recorded Moon Pix in Melbourne with the Dirty Three. At the show I saw she kept her head down, deliberately shielded her face by her hair and almost ran off stage at the end of her set. Clearly in a bad place ,her presence was the complete opposite of the defiant self-belief of Dylan at this » Continue Reading.

Wanna buy some reels of Dylan recording his first album – yours at auction?

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The recordings contained on these three master professional tapes were used to make the first Bob Dylan record album, “Bob Dylan.” Markings on the slipcases and the enclosed tape logs describe the John Hammond-produced sessions at Columbia Studios, New York City, on November 20 and 22, 1961. The dates are consistent with the album liner notes.

The tapes contain all the songs that appear on the album, as well as songs that were not included. Of significant importance is the fact that the tapes also contain verbal comments / suggestions made by John Hammond from the control both and Bob’s responses.

https://www.guernseys.com/v2/20th_Century_Iconic_Items.html#BobDylan

ATM video capture cards

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An ad popped up on the Artist formerly known as twitter. Looked refreshingly simple , 3 rca cables into your vcr, an hdmi into your computer and some sort of black box in between.

Anyone used these more contemporary devices?

Its lateish here so I may or may mot respond til morning. .

Cheers.

Rigo Star -Congolese guitarist – RIP

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Obituary

One of the greats of the style.

This is from a Facebook obit.

Star Rigo Bamundele is dead. Rigobert Bamundele, otherwise known as Rigo Star, was a Congolese composer and guitarist from Soukous born in 1955. He has collaborated with prominent DRC music heavyweights including Kanda Bongoman, Papa Wemba, Josky(Jotongo), Koffi(The bomb explodes), Madillu(exploration) and most importantly Mbilia Bel( irony, yalowa etc). Rumour has it he married Mbilia temporarily in the 1990s. He resided in Paris (Ile-de-Paris) until his death yesterday, October 26, 2023.

He also played on Paul Simon’s Rhythm Of The Saints.

OZ Afterworders – Sparks are touring, can heartily recommend.

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End of a world tour so very very tight , a great show with excellent sound and lighting. A packed an ecstatic crowd welcomed them to their show in Australia in 21 years. Despite the jetlag the energy was rightup there.

I own none of their records and am usually a bit meh about neo operatic electro dance (my label) but they are one of a kind.

Next shows are in Sydney, and Brissie and possibly a Harvest festival in Adelaide – could be wrong about that.

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Lou Reed’s Berlin is 50 years old

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This was my entry into the Lou / Velvets catalogue. Then it was Rock’n’Roll Animal, back to Transformer and then forward while, in parallel, heavily mining the Velvet’s catalogue.

Stephen Davis, in a December 1973 review for Rolling Stone, felt the album was a “disaster”; he disliked the world of “paranoia, schizophrenia, degradation, pill-induced violence and suicide” that the album introduced to the listener, as well as Reed’s “spoken and shouted” performance.He concluded with words to the effect of “there are some records you want to do physical violence to . Goodbye Lou.”

That extreme aggressive reaction was of course ironic given the themes of the record. And the critical panning at the time fuelled Lou’s resentment of the press for many years, maybe forever. As a teenager I was immediately interested.

It was so dark – the violence, the drugs the storyline, like nothing anyone else would attempt. Lou’s often monotonal, spoken or semi-spoken and occasionally singing almost sweetly just like he would do occasionally on VU records.

And then there is The Kids it opens with:

” They’ve taken her children away Because, they said she was not a bad mother”

And ends with kids » Continue Reading.

Lisa Simone on Nina Simone

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Nick Cave curated a music festival for which he included Nina Simone. In an interview he described going up to her hotel room as “fucking terrifying”. A friend was in a gym /sauna in Switzerland in early eighties. Nina was in there too, a very large Nina as my friend described, stark naked and on the wall phone – absolutely giving it to her manager both barrels. I have a DVD of a club performance of hers. I rarely watch it. She is just so hostile itis uncomfortable to watch. But what an artist.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/oct/05/lisa-simone-on-loving-and-fearing-her-mother-nina-on-my-16th-she-cursed-the-day-i-was-born

What bands has your partner put a prohibition on?

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The Dylan threads prompted the comment that he is verboten in their abode. Mrs Wells is much more accepting of Zimmy but one artist in particular won’t be tolerated. Frank Zappa. Even the wearing of my Chunga’s Revenge t shirt immediately gets a curl of the lip.

Who is persona non grata in your household?